PA Annual Report 2007/2008

ESK PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL REPORT
2007/8

Introduction

The European School system gives parents the right to be represented with the school management, teachers, pupils and member states on the Board of Governors and it is therefore of great importance that we are active and take advantage of these opportunities. The Parents’ Association represents parents’ interests within the school and on the Board of Governors in Brussels. The association is a non-profit making organisation and membership is voluntary. The annual membership fee is currently 15€ per family. All details are on the ESK Parents’ Association website: http://www.eskar.org/en/people/parents/panews.html.

The ESK Parents’ Association General Assembly was held on Thursday, 24 October 2007. Part of this year’s AGM was to thank some of the long-serving board members, Mrs. Gabrielle Stärker and Mrs. Claudia Pap, as they stepped down. A new team, 14 members, was elected during the meeting, namely:

President: Markus Gammelin
Vice-Presidents: Cindy van Velzen
Treasurer: Kevin Barber
Canteen: Ramil Nasyrow
Members: Sabine Chenu, Anja Bühner, Andria Mang, Magdalena Delaunay,
Merrild Flemming, Michel Messmer, Blandine Aslanides, Elizabeth Klawun
Ana Gorey, Ingrid Graham

In addition to having some specific duties, each member also represents a language section in either the primary or secondary school and is present at the ESK Education Council meetings. These took place 24 September and 15 October 2007, and 6 May 2008 for primary and nursery, and on the 18 October 2007 and 8 April 2008 for the secondary school. There were joint meetings for primary and secondary on 18 September 2007 and 17 June 2008.

These meetings are the forum in which we can raise issues that concern you all and make suggestions. In order to do this we try to work with the class representatives and we take this opportunity to thank them for all their efforts throughout the year. These meetings give an overview as to what is happening in the school and what is being planned.
The Parents’ Association also has an official seat on the ESK Administration Board, the first meeting of which was held on 15 November 2007 chaired by Mrs Renée Christmann, Secretary General of the European Schools. This was also the occasion for the Canteen groundbreaking, at which we were honoured by the presence of the Lord Mayor of Karlsruhe, Mr Heinz Fenrich, (who is also a grandfather of two of our pupils at ESK).

The second ESK Administration Board meeting took place on 31 January 2008. This is an especially important meeting as it involves the next year’s budget. The ESK Parents’ Association would like to draw parents’ attention to the fact that as of this year, there will only be two Administration Board meetings held per year instead of three. This is in the light of reforms introduced by the Board of Governors to streamline the functioning of the European schools. This reform is on three main axes: governance at central level and at the level of the schools, financing of the system and opening up of the system.

ESK Parents’ Association is also represented on the Board of Governors via the umbrella parent association of all European schools, INTERPARENTS. Rotraut Luedemann-Moretto, from the European School Bergen, has been president from 2005-2008, Christopher Wilkinson was elected to this position in January 2008.

INTERPARENTS (IP) has representation in the Board of (BoG), the Governors’ Teaching Committees (TC), namely the Nursery and Primary TC, the Secondary TC and the Joint TC as well as the Administrative and Financial Committee (AFC/CAF); IP also partakes in a number of BoG Working Groups: Distance learning, Special Education Needs (SEN,): Learning Support Primary, Learning Support Secondary, Attainment contracts, and Languages and Library. If you are interested in any more information on this or wish to get more involved, please let us know.

Last year it was Karlsruhe’s turn to host the October meeting, which took place on the 19 October 2007. Other meetings took place on 20 November 2007 at Brussels II, on 21 January 2008 at Brussels IV, on19 February 2008 at Brussels III, and on the 9 – 10 April 2007, Bergen, the Netherlands.

These meetings are primarily to prepare INTERPARENTS’ position on the items on the agenda of the Board of Governors meeting and are preparatory to so that the IP delegates involved will be able to participate on the basis of representation of all parents in the system. This often leads to very interesting discussions and also brings to light the strengths and weaknesses of the system. Other topics which are not necessarily related to the ongoing agenda items include student exchanges, extra curricular activities, university entry issues etc.

Holding meetings at the different European Schools creates more awareness and understanding of the different circumstances under which the system operates and open mindedness as to various ways in which essential elements of the system can be implemented. If you would like to know more, please refer to this website: www.interparents.eu

In addition, last year, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of European School Education the Central Staff Committee of the European Commission (CCP) hosted a conference on the topic of “The Future of the European Schools – the Way Ahead”, in Brussels on 7 December 2007. Over 200 participants, amongst them teachers, parents, students, headmasters, educational specialists, parliamentarians, ministry of education and governmental officials, EU staff members, CCP, Commission, members of the Board of Governors, local authorities, private enterprise and others. The Parents’ Association was also represented at the conference. Five main topics were discussed in working groups. If you would like to know more, please refer to their website: www.gudee.eu

ESK Parents’ Association Board meetings

The Parents’ Association Board met on Thursday evenings from 8pm onwards. There were nine meetings during the 2007/8 academic year following the election of the new board at the General Assembly. These meetings took place on: 25 October 2007, 13 December 2007, 24 January 2008, 21 February 2008, 3 April 2008, 15 May 2008, 12 June 2008, 18 September 2008 and 23 October 2008.

A recurrent discussion during these meetings was the role of the Parents’ Association and the role of members as representatives of parents. There were differing views within the committee as to what the Parents’ Association was expected to do and what it was expected to support and finance, as opposed to what was for the school to do.

It was felt that greater contact was needed between the ESK Parents’ Association and the class representatives and with parents in general. Some members of the board felt that many parents were very involved in the school independently of the Parents’ Association. Therefore, getting to know the parents was our top priority for this academic year, and we did this on several occasions.

First of all, the ESK Parents’ Association hosted a Christmas reception for all parents on the occasion of the primary school Christmas carol concert on Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th of December 2007. We were very pleased to meet so many parents and hear their opinions. We thank them for their support and interest.

The first Coffee Morning, 30 January 2008 was also a great success and we are very grateful to Sheila Doucet, Cornelia Wonnerth and Myriam Pourret for their inspiration and organisation. This is a perfect example of how the Parents’ Association and parents can work together, and it was a great opportunity for all parents interested in sharing ideas, meeting other like-minded parents and finding out more about the Parents’ Association.

A second coffee morning took place on 7 May 2008 and a number of other activities are up and running for those parents interested. This is called the OUTREACH Initiative − parents reaching parents with great ideas like “Survival German” class which met regularly on Monday mornings near Marktplatz (thanks to Ingrid Graham − one of our board members) and the English-language Walking Tour of Karlsruhe, Thursday 5th June, from 9.30 to 11.30 in the morning at a reasonable price of €5 to find out “What did Margrave Karl Wilhelm of Baden have in mind when he ventured from Durlach back in 1715? This was organised by Philippa Hood (GS, 2E, 3E; 1OS) and Debjani Basu.

Open Day – 1st March 2008 was another occasion during which the Parents’ Association was around providing refreshments and getting to know parents and answer their questions. Thanks to everyone for cakes.

29 June 2008 – Summer Fete – is the big ESK Parents’ Association event of the year and we say many thanks for the volunteers to help out. This year, in view of the European Soccer Championships (the finals were actually the same evening) we had a’ human’ table soccer competition. It was a big success and the children had lots of fun! Of course children from the Primary school performed on stage for their relatives and friends and again the teachers had put a lot of efforts to make it one big success! Thanks to all the teachers for the cooperation and hard work. At the end of the day, we were pleasantly entertained by a new teachers’ schoolband “Ad Hoc”. They played many ‘old’ songs, artgarfunkel genre and the parents were having a good time! There was plenty of food and drinks and we were completely sold out at the end of the day. The international café was popular, in fact too popular as we ran out of cakes too quickly. Maybe we’ll get more cakes from the parents next year

We also introduced new T-shirts for the Euroboutique as we wanted to offer a more sophisticated, college like shirt. They come in white and marine blue and cost 15 €. The children were also given an ESK lanyard for their future identity passes. Next school year we are planning to extend the Euroboutique product offer a bit more.

Other on-going activities by the Parents’ Association

Extracurricular Activities have been run over the last few years by Sabine Chenu and assisted this year by Anja Bühner and are aimed at promoting contact between different age groups and sections as well as providing an opportunity to children, who might not participate in leisure time activity at home, to get involved in a sporting or playful activity. There are numerous activities on offer (art, creative dance, ballet, Knobeln, flute, basketball, etc.). Many of these activities are organised in conjunction with the teachers and we thank them for their good will and efforts. Any suggestions for activities would also be most welcome as we know that children’s interests are ever evolving, i.e. why not build your own computer activity?

However, due to the fact that there is a long school day and many children have a long journey home, it is difficult for many children to participate in the Außerschulische Aktivitäten. This year there were approximately a hundred students involved in the 11 activities on offer, some more popular than others.

Most importantly, there is the Parents’ Association Newsletter which comes out on a regular basis and keeps parents informed about what is going on at school and what is coming up. The newsletter came out in October and November 2007, January and May 2008 in both German and English. Our thanks go to Andria Mang for putting together the newsletter and keeping us all up to date—a task which is not easy with all that is going on in the school (see Appendix 3 for overview). Andria is stepping down this year so we are on the look-out for someone, or a few parents, to take on the collection and formatting of information for the newsletter.

Although only indirectly responsible, the ESK Parents’ Association follows the progress of the Transport Committee, headed by Flemming Merrild and the Canteen Committee, headed by Ramil Nasyrow.

The Transport Committee does an incredible job, organising the transportation of over hundreds of students to school every day. There are many buses and of course the school tram. Students pay an administrative fee plus the KVV School Card fee, and for this they are also able to use the excellent Karlsruhe transport system at any time. The card also gives them a percentage reduction on trains in the Baden Württemberg region.

The Canteen Committee’s main objective is to provide all school children from 4 to 18 years with a healthy, warm lunch with a varied menu at reasonable prices. According to the statute the management committee of the association consists of seven members: Four members of the Parents’ Association: Ramil Nasyrow as Chairman, Eliane Baudot as Secretary, Uwe Zweigner as Treasurer, Milene Deckert and three members, representing the European School: Jurgen Solle, Dana Pavlicikova, Mario Da Torre. They met three times on 29 November 2007, 5 June 2008 and 1 July 2008.

The food goods for the canteen are purchased from three suppliers: Frozen goods manufactured by the company Apetito AG, Fresh salads delivered by the company Bäko and Bakery products manufactured by the company Neff. Then the food is processed and distributed by canteen staff.

In the 2007/2008 school year, averages of 1,200 meals per week were spent to the revenue of approximately € 32,400. In the canteen are employed currently six employees, personnel costs are amounted to € 2,027 per month including social taxes, the two employees are paid by the school. The canteen committee is non-profit organization and do not collects VAT from the parents, the parents pay for a trimester, three months in advance for all week days on what the children go to the canteen. Secondary school children get the meal tickets for each canteen visit, primary and kindergarten children are registered in the class lists and go with an appropriate teacher to the canteen. To the tasks of the management committee belong also the issuance and management of food cards and the leadership of the food lists for the elementary school.

In an effort to seek better solutions, regarding nutritious fresh meals for ESK pupils, an alternative caterer, Fa. Sander, supplied the canteen for a trial period from the 6th to 8th May 2008. Food was delivered refrigerated rather than frozen in an effort to ensure better quality.

Currently, four different menus are on offer:
• 1st “Normal” - consisting of main meal, salad, dessert or fruit
• 2nd “Vegetarian” - consisting of vegetarian main meal, salad and dessert
• 3rd Salad plate with bread
• 4th Soup plate with bread

In the current canteen lunch is served from 11:30 to 13:35 in three stages starting by the primary school, following by secondary school students, and then after a break finishing by the kindergarten children. On Tuesday and Thursday's existing a special crowd, because all elementary school pupils have a long day and spending lunch in school. The teachers also use the same canteen.

In agreement with the European School and the Parents' Association, the canteen committee is eligible to support the education of student, in last year as were the following events: Open day (ca. 200 €); Summer fete (300 €); Abiball (150 €); Lego project (ca. 700 €). It should be not forgotten that the construction of the new canteen was financed by reserves of the canteen committee in years up until 2005 (170,000 €.)

According to the opinion of the members the new canteen needs to finally increase the quality of the food. That will not happen without increasing of the meal prizes. The large survey 3 years ago has shown that the parents would be agreed to pay more until approximately € 3.50 (current price is € 2.70) by increasing quality of the food.

The opening of the new canteen is foreseen on 1st January 2009. However, we know that the new canteen is already too small for present number of school meals. One idea to help this could be separating primary and secondary school lunchtimes. This will entail an intense discuss with the school about the schedule of the canteen.

Sponsorship

The Parents’ Association has sponsored a number of fund-raising events over the years, which have in turn made it possible for the pupils to participate in enrichment activities. This year the ESK Parents’ Association gave a record number of Euros in total.

5 – 8 March 2008a team of ESK pupils from secondary school participated at the Model European Council (MEC) in Alicante. The MEC is an annual simulation of the real European Council at which pupils from the various European Schools discuss current political issues and proposals – just like the real thing. The Parents’ Association made a significant financial contribution to enable the ESK delegation to go. In their own words “For two days we felt like real ministers!”

10-11 April 2008 – the European Kangaroo Maths competition was held, and is organised in Karlsruhe by Mrs Elke Schubert. The mathematics competition is held in many European countries and is a popular annual event for ESK pupils of both the primary, 4th and 5th year, and secondary school. Thanks to the Parents’ Association, which is again sponsoring this event, primary school pupils will not be charged to take part and secondary school pupils will pay only €2 to participate. They each had to answer 20 to 30 tricky maths questions in 50 to 75 minutes.

The results, certificates and prizes were out by mid-June but for those of you who would like to check your answers again, you will find them on the following websites: www.kangourou.it (I), www.mathe-kaenguru.de (D), www.mathkang.org (F) and www.math.kun.nl/kangoeroe/ (NL).

European Science Symposium – Varese −Karlsruhe came in first – Robots − Congratulations go to the pupils who took part in this year’s European School Science Symposium in Varese and their teacher, Mr. Sperl. As Mr. Sperl told us, all their efforts were well worth it because the seniors were awarded 1st place in the top-level category.

The winners are: Jana Schubert 5D, Michael Schubert 4D, Philip Gouder 4D.The group will now take part in the European Finals in Copenhagen in September. This will also be the final of “Jugend forscht” and all similar competitions held in other European countries, so it will be a great challenge.

6-10 April − Primary school Choir Festival, ESKAdO – Canteen offered free canteen tickets to visiting pupils and at the closing grill event.

22 April 2008 – Multivision to discuss climate and energy questions.

3 July 2008 − Final year Prom – Abiball – As in the past, the ESK PA contributed towards the prom. Canteen donated 150€

The ESK Parents’ Association was also the recipient of some sponsorship from Siemens in the form of new furniture for the office, and the Parents’ Association treated itself to a new computer, which now accepts USB peripherals. On the old PC more than 1500 unknown files had to be checked and archived which Markus Gammelin did over a period of 3 weeks.

Main issues at the European School, Karlsruhe

This year the most important event for the primary school was the arrival of Dana Pavličíková, the new head of the nursery and primary school who took over the reins from Nelleke Deelen at the beginning of the new school year. Mrs. Pavličíková comes from the town of Prachatice in the Czech Republic, and has been working in education for more than 25 years, ten of them as deputy head of a Czech primary school.

A fair amount of building work has been going on with Block B getting freshly painted walls and door frames in the corridors and new toilets. The Playground has been given a complete makeover, and we thank Mr. Schnitzer for all his hard work and Mr Albert Martens for his engagement and artistic talent. Work has also been going on for the new Canteen building which was expected to be opened by the end of 2008. Another exciting development is the agreement with the City of Karlsruhe to build an additional Nursery building.

The lack of a school Bursar was an issue and put an extra burden on the school’s administrative staff.
One of the other major topics under discussion this year was the proposed new security measures that were put into place at the beginning of the academic year 2008/9. The European School Karlsruhe is the last of the 14 European Schools to hire a professional security firm. There are two guards on a daily basis between 8 and 1600 hours.

Also, new school cards have been issued this year, which not only indicate the pupil’s status as far as parental permission to leave campus is concerned, but also serve as library cards, and maybe also for Canteen.

In addition, Karlsruhe is the pilot project within the European schools system for the electronic attendance sheet which will allow parents to know almost immediately if their child is not in school or in class.

Another matter which is already in advance planning stages is the fact that from 25-28 March 2009, the European School will be hosting the EUROSPORT tournament. Pupils from all European schools will come to Karlsruhe to take part in the games, which include basketball, football, table tennis, running and swimming. In addition to the sporting activities there will be a social and cultural programme, all of which make EUROSPORT an important exchange event for the European schools. We will be pleased to welcome over 400 guests from a variety of countries here in Karlsruhe, but also need your help in making the event a success. In particular we would like to ask you to consider providing host accommodation for the competitors and their teachers. During the days our guests would be in school where they would also have a midday meal. For breakfast and evening meals they would join their host families.

We would be grateful if you would already consider getting involved in this great event by offering to host one or more guests, and would ask you to let us know of your interest as soon as possible.

Main school events during 2007/8 were almost too numerous to mention but we felt we should do so not only to thank the school for such a varied programme, drawing attention to the parents who gave a helping hand:

14 September 2007 − Opening of Otto Herbert Hajek’s exhibition in the ZKM Karlsruhe. Mr. Høyem and Mrs. Pavličíková took part in this opening. Mr. Hajek is an honoured citizen of the town Prachatice in the Czech Republic, where there is a cultural centre named in his honour.
Mr. Hajek’s grandchild is a secondary pupil at the ESK.

17 September 2007 − African Days – Pupils in years 3 to 5 experienced African culture through song, dance and storytelling.

2 October 2007 – Primary school Sports Day

October? Children’s Marathon – Isabelle Ebert, the school nurse, organised training for interested pupils, which was carried out with the help of Ingrid Graham and several other parent volunteers.

8-12 October 2007 – Fit for Fun week

23 October 2007 − African Days – Pupils in years 1 and 2 experienced African culture through song, dance and storytelling.

12 November 2007 – Festival of Light − we enjoyed seeing the children singing, dancing and playing by the bonfire. Thank you to the whole nursery team for this lovely event.

13 November 2007 − Christmas in a Shoebox” project− enthusiastic teachers, parents and pupils organised a cake sale which raised over €300, as well as bringing in donations to fill numerous boxes.

November - Bonfire night – run by English Section parents

27 November 2007 – ESK, in cooperation with the Humboldt Gymnasium and the Merkur Akademie International, hosted a Burundi-Evening. Philip Ziser, journalist and one of the founders of the charity, talked about the charity, the project “A teacher for Burundi” and his own personal experiences in Burundi. It was an evening of song, photo reports and a Burundi Market selling toys made by the children. Entry was free but donations went towards the “Teacher for Burundi” appeal of the Burundi project. More information on http://www.burundikids.org/unterstuetzung/esk.html

28 November 2007 − Secondary school pupils from year 5 took part in a conference on nanotechnology presented by Alexis Vlandas from the Max Planck Institut in München and coordinated by Philippe Carre.

30 November 2007 − Dutch Cultural Evening with years 4 and 5 of the Dutch primary section performing “Sinterklaas in Hackersland”. A traditional dinner “Hollandaise & Flammant” was served “Erwtensoep met worst” and Sinterklaas.

6 December 2007 – Primary school Christmas Concert

17 & 18 December 2007 – Primary School Christmas Programme – The musical “Das Vier-Farben-Land” received especially good reviews both from parents and the local press, the BNN and the Karlsruher Anzeige. The performance was filmed and can be purchased on DVD with funds going to support the primary school social fund.

1 January 2008 − To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Waldstadt, a book, entitled “Die Waldstadt in Karlsruhe”, was released for sale on 01.12.2007. Our former secondary school counsellor, Mr. Demeersman, has contributed many photos and a report about the history of the ESK and its importance to the Waldstadt. You can purchase the book from the school for €24.80. Please place your orders with Mrs. Herrmann or Mrs. Marmillot.

25 January 208 – Health visit to Primary

30 January 2008 – Danish Fastelavn

3 – 7 March 2008 – Project days

12 March 2008 − the ESKaDo Choir had a great opportunity – they were invited to sing Happy Birthday to Mr. Poetterring, President of the European Parliament at the 50 year celebrations, and presented a gift from the European School, Karlsruhe, a painting called “la maison de l’Europe” created by Thierry Quéré, representing the nursery school childrens’ ideas about the European Parliament.

10-13 April 2008 − Euro-Choir Festival − ESKAdO – First European School Choir Festival – the European School Karlsruhe hosted the very first European school primary choir festival. Professional choir masters John Hoyby from Copenhagen, Denmark and Klaus Braun from Landau held a three-day workshop. Visiting pupils from Varese, Munich and Brussels stayed with host families during the festival, and we thank those parents for supporting such an event. The choir concert, grand finale of the festival, was held in the school assembly hall on 12 April 2008.

15 February 2008 – “Huis clos” by Jean-Paul Sartre was performed by the secondary school, French language theatre in the ESK Assembly Hall.

10 May 2008 − European Festival − Karlsruhe Marktplatz − ESKaDo Choir performance

14 May 2008 – Music festival – in the ESK assembly hall − This year’s festival had the theme “Summer, Sun, Beach and More” and was just as colourful and diverse as it has been in previous years. Admission was free of charge and year 6 pupils sold drinks in the interval.

7 June 2008 – Waldstadtfest – Members of the Parents’ Association represented the school by manning a booth during this community event. Information was handed out to interested visitors, and questions were answered.

24 June 2008 − Frau Köller (Waldpädagogin) took 4E class on an educational walk through the woods near school. This was to part of the “Discovery of the World topic − The Living World”. She talked to the pupils about the different creatures living in the woods and pointed out some interesting things that they may not have been aware of.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Tom Høyem, Mario Da Torre, and Dana Pavličíková and the whole school team for their dedication, commitment and enthusiasm.